- Letters: L/ADIPRY
- Words: 56
- Points: 244
- Pangrams: 2
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The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes,
tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots. An exception:
since Sam won't allow S, when the root contains an S, the clue may be for a plural or suffixed form. "Mice" for example.
If a clue isn't self-explanatory, try googling it. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
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Table content
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| answers covered | answer's first letter | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | 6 | What you breathe |
| 1 | A | 7 | Broadcasting time devoted to a particular song or performer |
| 1 | A | 5 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 1 | A | 4 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict, noun/verb |
| 1 | A | 6 | Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me) |
| 1 | A | 5 | Submit your résumé (to a college or job), or be relevant (terms & conditions may …), one who does this is a pangram |
| 1 | A | 4 | Seed covering |
| 1 | D | 5 | Move slowly, or have casual sex with, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | D | 5 | 24-hour period |
| 1 | D | 7 | Monet’s fav flower, one that lasts only 24 hrs., compound |
| 1 | D | 4 | What you turn on a rotary phone or radio knob (don't touch that …!) |
| 1 | D | 6 | Worthless amount (… squat), or guitarist Bo |
| 1 | D | 4 | Pickle spice |
| 1 | D | 5 | Excellent example (that was a … of a game) |
| 1 | D | 10 | Waste time, compound, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | D | 5 | Power tool with bits for making holes, or practice for an emergency (fire …); noun |
| 1 | D | 5 | Not wet |
| 1 | I | 4 | Not doing anything; or, said of an engine, running but not in gear |
| 2 | I | 4,5 | Extremely happy scene or poem |
| 1 | I | 4 | Not healthy, sick, adverb/noun; hardly, or only with difficulty, adverb (they could … afford the cost of a new car) |
| 1 | L | 4 | ♀ counterpart of gentleman ("… & the Tramp") |
| 1 | L | 4 | Animal or criminal den |
| 1 | L | 8 | Gem cutting & polishing adj., pangram |
| 1 | L | 4 | Pig fat for cooking |
| 1 | L | 4 | Put something down |
| 1 | L | 4 | Someone who doesn’t tell the truth |
| 1 | L | 4 | Monet floral subject (water …) |
| 1 | L | 5 | Body part with which you kiss |
| 1 | L | 5 | Chemical term for a fatty acid |
| 1 | L | 4 | ₺ or ₤, Turkish or old Italian $ |
| 1 | P | 4 | Bucket, NOT white-faced |
| 1 | P | 6 | Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun |
| 1 | P | 4 | Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer" |
| 2 | P | 6,8 | White-faced, feeble; sounds like covering for what Jack & Jill used to fetch water, adj. + adv. |
| 1 | P | 4 | Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term |
| 2 | P | 5,7 | Pontiff adj. |
| 2 | P | 7,9 | Small rounded bump on body part such as tongue (from Latin) |
| 1 | P | 6 | Turn winnings from a bet into a greater amount by gambling, verb/noun |
| 1 | P | 6 | Urinate, slang (house training small dogs might require a … pad) |
| 1 | P | 4 | Tablet of medicine |
| 1 | P | 6 | Tall vertical structure that supports or decorates a building; or, figuratively, someone who reliably supports a group (… of the community) |
| 1 | P | 5 | Tartan or lumberjack shirt pattern |
| 1 | P | 4 | Staged drama, or what kids do at recess |
| 2 | R | 6,8 | Modern tire design; or arranged like spokes of a wheel, adj. |
| 1 | R | 4 | What a train travels on, or what you hold on stairs |
| 1 | R | 5 | Mass meeting of people for a common cause (pep, political), noun/verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | R | 7 | Swift, as in “transit,” adj., or river whitewater (plural), adv. form is a pangram |
| 1 | R | 4 | $ in Iran, Oman, & Yemen |
| 1 | R | 4 | Small stream |
| 1 | R | 6 | Tiny wave that spreads out in a liquid, noun/verb; or ice cream with wavy lines of flavored syrup running through it (fudge …) |
| 1 | R | 5 | $ in Saudi Arabia |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.
The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on social media.
A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.
One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.
I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout